


Where The Ashes Lie

by herwhiteknight



Series: 365 Days of Sarah/Cosima [13]
Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: (seriously figuring out tags for this 'verse is DIFFICULT), Alternate Universe - Space, Cosima is some kind of Space Entity, F/F, Human Astral, Stars, Supernatural Elements, Vessel 'verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-28
Updated: 2017-01-28
Packaged: 2018-09-20 10:05:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9486452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/herwhiteknight/pseuds/herwhiteknight
Summary: Cosima becomes human. But Sarah soon figures out that that is the least of her worries.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This fic for the Vessel 'verse got away from me in a very /extreme/ way. Like it just ran away. Hope you guys enjoy anyways! 
> 
> Set after "First Light". 
> 
> Day 14 of 365.

Sarah has electrocuted herself only once. She had a fork and a rebel streak and one of her foster mother's told her _no, you can't stick that in the outlet._ It had lasted for only about as long as it took for her pain receptors to tell her that _yeah, sometimes authorities were right_ and for them to promptly drop the damned thing.

This, right now? These waves of energy far more powerful that she can even comprehend? So much more bloody worse than anything ever. She wants to scream out, but her jaw is locked shut. Or clenched shut. She isn't sure if she's biting down on her tongue to ride out the pain, or if the electricity currently coursing through her was overriding any muscular impulses in her body.

She certainly can't move any other part of her body.

A surge much different than the intensive fire crippling her neurons seems to impact her core, spreading an impulse that seems to break her body in two with its lightning. Everything snaps into full extension, her eyes thrown open wide since she had first had them gritted closed against the pain.

Her jaw wrenches open at the same moment, the scream she lets loose an eerie sound against the backdrop of the inky black sky.

 

\- - -

 

The next thing Sarah knows is that the pain is gone. That she's still lying on grass. She hadn't floated away into space. She must be in her backyard still. But she's not sore. No remnants of any sort of agony remain in her bones, her muscles. Maybe she just dreamed the whole thing. Everything.

 _Even Cosima?_ her brain is quick to ask her.

Sarah's eyes fly open at that thought. She registers next that she feels lighter than she has _ever_ felt in her entire life. It's.. really _nice,_ but awkward, like she shouldn't be feeling this way, like there's a catch or something-

Then she hears crying. No. _Sobbing._

It's weird, because she _instantly_ knows it's Cosima. Cosima, a pretty girl from space – no, but, not even a girl. She wasn't anything one way or the other. But her daughter had been right, the way Cosima sounded – pretty. Too pretty to be a guy. Too soft and gentle and _wonderful._

 _And she's_ sobbing _you bloody twat._

“C-Cos?” Sarah asks, stupidly looking upwards. Because that's where Cosima's always been and why would a body-inhibiting surge of electrical energy change that fact?

“Sarah! Oh my god Sarah I thought you died and that I killed you, shit, _shit,_ I knew I should've listened to that grandpa, he told me that I would kill you but I told him, you know, I believed that you were different and that it'd be okay and I-”

“Cosima!” Sarah yelps, electricity striking her core as something warm and _heavy_ and _most certainly real_ smothers her as she lies on the grass. “You... shite. You're _real._ ”

Cosima's stumbling words pull up short when she hears what Sarah's saying. Her weight shifts and slips off of Sarah's stomach. The weight, along with the low coursing surge of energy, disappears. “I...,” she breathes as she stretches her hands out in front of her and stares at them, Sarah's stunned expression becoming background details as she studies the way her fingers flex.

“You're bloody real!” Sarah exclaims with a loud huff of exuberant disbelief as she takes her turn in tackling Cosima to the grass, her nose ending up tangled up in her long wavy locks. She pulls back after a moment, tugging Cosima back up with her so they're both kneeling. “And, uh...,” Sarah stutters suddenly, “Um you're... uh, well. Naked.”

Cosima looks down at herself at Sarah's statement, taking in her figure, her lips parting in awe. “You guys don't walk around like this on the regular?” Cosima tries, but the obvious attempt at sass falls flat as her amazement takes front and center.

“Uh, no, but... well, y'know, uh... the ash is a great look on you,” Sarah offers, but her eyes are still averted off to the side. In reverence, _of course,_ Cosima came from the _universe_ after all, not because Sarah was embarrassed or like, trying not to be a _creep_ or anything.

“Ash?” Cosima asks, touching her face with a blackened hand, smudging the fine coating so that pale skin underneath is revealed slightly. Revelation dawns on her face, lighting her expression up with an infectious grin. “I was a _star,_ Sarah!” she exclaims, whirling around.

“Uh, y-yeah Cos, you.. y'were, um, what-?”

“Hang on!” she giggles, pushing herself to a wobbly standing position. Sarah averts her eyes again. “So, so technically, as a star, and now I'm not, I might've, well, that would explain the ash, partly at least, of course no one has ever witnessed _anything_ like this, so-”

Sarah stands slowly, casting a brief thought to her own body and just how _light_ it still feels, and watches Cosima warily as she putters around the yard, sometimes stooping purposefully towards specific patches of grass and other times just flat out falling on her ass. “Uh, Cosima?”

“Hm?” Cosima sticks her head up like a meerkat, staring in Sarah's direction.

The sight is _so bizarre_ that Sarah has to take a moment – several moments – to just process. Cosima, the being that was once _a bloody star,_ is squatting in her backyard, completely _naked and covered in ash,_ rooting around in the grass with one hand while her other rests on her knee, tracing absent patterns on her leg. “Uh...,” Sarah starts, pushing a hand through her unruly mane of hair. Cosima mirrors her, unconsciously it seems, sweeping her wavy raven black hair away from her eyes. “Y'mind explaining to me exactly what you're goin' on about?”

“Well, I was just wondering, I mean, _I'm_ covered in dust,” Cosima points out, scrubbing a palm across her arm, holding the offending hand aloft as ash fell from her fingers. “So, stands to reason, right? Had to come from somewhere. I'm trying to find where I landed.”

“Okay well...,” Sarah shuffles on her feet, _still_ keeping her eyes averted. “Backyard's not that big, so, um. Just.. I'll be right back, 'kay?”

“Sure, sure,” Cosima responds absently, tracing grass blades with the pads of her fingers as Sarah ducks into the kitchen, hoping that the commotion from the past few minutes went unnoticed and that the house was still sleeping peacefully.

The kitchen light is on when Sarah steps into the house. Mrs. S was from some kind of wartime. Sarah should've known. “Uh... hey, S,” she blinks, her hand finding her neck as she attempts to slide further into the house without much more of a confrontation.

“What is happening out there, Sarah,” Mrs. S demands. Definitely not a question, of course not. “Who is that.”

“Uh.. ah huh. Well,” Sarah attempts to evade as she backs into the hallway. Mrs. S advances all of two paces to grab her arm. “Fine!” Sarah gives, stuffing her hands in her pockets and pursing her lips. Mrs. S simply raises an eyebrow at her. “Look, just.. would you give me a minute? I need to get a shirt, is all.”

“For your new friend outside, I presume,” Mrs. S says pointedly.

“Crazy, I know, I have a decent bone in my body somewhere after all,” Sarah rolls her eyes, shrugging Mrs. S's hand off her arm as she turns down into the hallway, peeking quickly into Kira's bedroom to see the little girl fast asleep. _One less thing she needed to worry about right now._

“You will explain this all to me, correct?”

“After I get the shirt, yeah? Bloody hell S,” Sarah hisses as she ducks into her room and swipes a shirt from her closet. A pair of wolves howling at the Northern lights. Fitting, somehow. “Come on then,” she sighs in resignation. _At least she can't think I'm crazy when the proof is literally right there in front of her eyes._

“Cos?” Sarah calls out, squinting to adjust to the sudden darkness of the outdoors. “Our backyard really isn't that big, where could she-”

“Here Sarah,” Cosima answers back but her voice is off. And Sarah had spent enough time communicating with her to know that something was up.

 _Save that for later._ “Uh, Cosima, there's-”

“Cosima?” Mrs. S almost scoffs behind Sarah, “Kira's _star_ friend? Seriously now, Sarah, you can't expect-”

“Sarah, you need to see this,” Cosima says again. Same tone.

“S just.. stay here, yeah?” Sarah mutters, prioritizing. Whatever's going on with Cosima, Sarah figures it's best to only have one bomb to drop on Mrs. S at a time.

“Sarah, I.. I found where I landed,” Cosima murmurs as Sarah draws close.

“Yeah?”

“Uh, yeah, well.. technically where I _died_ right, because I _used_ to be a star but now I definitely am not, so, well, anyways, just.. you need to look,” Cosima points, nudging Sarah closer to what looks like a scorch mark in the grass, leaving a scar in the dirt about a foot deep. “Impact zone.”

“That's cool, Cos. But-” Sarah starts, not sure why it was such a big deal. _It's what she was looking for, wasn't it?_

Then Cosima takes Sarah's arm and directs her attention to a few feet away. “There's another one.”

“Cos, what are you-?”

“Okay Sarah, that's enough,” Mrs. S calls out in annoyance, “I would like to know what's going on. Now.”

“S, would you just-”

Cosima put her hand on Sarah's arm, silencing her in order to offer up an explanation. The energy from earlier, when Cosima had first tackled her in tears, found its way back to settle in with the rhythm of her heartbeat. “I'm Cosima,” she starts with a grin, “And I think I accidentally fused with your daughter.”

 


End file.
